Palmetto Porn Crackdown

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Numerous adult websites are shutting down in South Carolina – or requiring age verification data from users – following the effective date of a key provision of the 2024 Child Online Safety Act.

The new law – Act 198 of 2024 – overwhelmingly passed the S.C. General Assembly and was signed by governor Henry McMaster on May 21, 2024.

Per the law, “a commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material harmful to minors on the Internet from a website that contains a substantial portion of such material must be held liable if the entity fails to perform reasonable age verification methods to verify the age of an individual attempting to access the material.”

That requirement went into effect yesterday (January 1, 2025).

Companies which fail to verify the age of users are subject to nominal, actual and punitive damages – as well as court costs and attorneys’ fees. One prominent adult website – Pornhub.com – has decided to “completely disable access to our website in South Carolina” in response to the new law.

***

According to a video message delivered by adult actress Cherie DeVille, Pornhub does not believe the law’s enforcement mechanisms are fair or effective – which according to her “will put your children and your privacy at risk.”

“Mandating age verification without proper enforcement gives platforms the opportunity to choose whether or not to comply,” DeVille said. “As we’ve seen in other states, this just drives traffic to sites with far fewer safety measures in place.”

DeVille’s video message argued “the best and most effective solution for protecting children and adults alike is to identify users by their device and allow access to age-restricted materials and websites based on that identification.”

She urged South Carolinians to “contact your representatives before it is too late and demand device-based verification solutions that make the internet safer while also respecting your privacy.”

(Click to view)

***

South Carolina’s law was sponsored by state representative Travis Moore of Roebuck. It mirrors legislation approved in numerous other states over the past three years. Social conservatives – led by S.C. Family Caucus chairman John R. McCravy III – hailed the implementation of the new statute and its ostensibly adverse impact on porn providers.

“Family Caucus is proud of our work to protect children from online pornography with the Child Online Safety Act,” McCravy, one of the bill’s sponsors, told FITSNews. “Until we put every safeguard in place to keep our children safe, we will not stop fighting.”

Moore passionately defended the legislation during a speech on the floor of the S.C. House of Representatives last year.

“It is a fact that the average child in the United States of America has access to hardcore pornography at the age of eleven… eleven,” Moore said. “We’re not talking about obscenity, we’re not talking about rap music, we’re talking about hardcore adult pornography.”

Here is a link to Moore’s floor speech…

(Click to view)

***

The lone lawmaker to vote against the ban – state representative Justin Bamberg – echoed the concerns raised by Pornhub related to the migration of traffic to less-scrupulous adult content providers.

Bamberg also raised issues about the bill’s lack of enforceability given the broad expanse of the internet.

“There’s nothing that the attorney general’s office or anybody’s gonna be able to do about it, because it’s the internet,” Bamberg told reporter Nick Reynolds of The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier. “It’s borderline impossible to police the internet.”

In a follow-up post on X, Bamberg added “that’s why I suggested the alternative of age verification on devices versus the impossible feat of policing the ENTIRE internet.”

“The implementation of the law is problematic as is the enforceability of the law in real life,” he noted.

Legal challenges to similar online restrictions in other states are moving through the court system. The Free Speech Coalition – which bills itself as the nonprofit, non-partisan trade wing of the adult entertainment industry – recently asked the U.S. supreme court to hear a case involving Texas’ law.

“While purportedly seeking to limit minors’ access to online sexual content, the (Texas law) imposes significant burdens on adults’ access to constitutionally protected expression,” a petition (.pdf) noted. “Of central relevance here, it requires every user, including adults, to submit personally identifying information to access sensitive, intimate content over a medium — the Internet — that poses unique security and privacy concerns.”

Count on FITSNews to stay on top of this debate…

_{^{BANNER VIA: GETTY IMAGES}}

***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

***

WANNA SOUND OFF?

Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.